Emergency Order

[Forthelittleones]

DH drove 1400 miles to pick up SD, he was met at the door with a smiling BM who said, all visitation has been suspended, you can see her fro 2 hours of supervised visitation at XYA.  He shows up there apparently, BM retained a new attorney as her old one told her if she continued she would lose SD.

This new one filed an emergency motion and did not have DH served. It was signed by the Judge on the 10th and DH's attorney at 6:30 last night did not know anything about it.  The lady at the XYA stated that it appeared he was not properly served and she was surprised that DH's attorney did not know anything.  

We are guessing that BM thought DH was flying in instead of driving as the hearing in on Monday for suspension of all visitation immediately.  DH's attorney last night stated that he would not represent us as we still owed him some money.  

So, until DH can go to the courthouse and get a copy of the allegations against him and hopefully get his attorney to show up.  We need all your thoughts and prayers.  
 
I was so upset last night that another child loses again due to a vindicitive mother that the dogs and I walked in the rain for an hour and a half.  If anyone knows anything or can give me good thoughts, we would really appreciate it right now.

Thanks

[Indigo Mom]

-----This new one filed an emergency motion and did not have DH served. -----

I bet she did have him served...at an unknown address.  I don't know that a hearing can go through if one of the people involved wasn't properly served, that's why I bet he was served at an address he "used" to live at.  

I did up an emergency hearing and it took place, if I remember correctly, 4 days after I filed.  monster was homeless at the time, so I had issues having him served.  The clerk told me if he wasn't served, the hearing wouldn't take place.  We scrambled around tracking him down just so my case would be heard.

Get hubby to the courthouse asap...find out what happened, cause this is some sick business.  1400 miles?  He drives THAT far only to be turned away?  My goodness......what has this world come to?

[JAFO]

My first thought is that Dad's attorney has to show or else Dad could file a complaint with the bar association against the attorney.  Whether or not Dad owes money to the attorney is beside the point unless the attorney has formally withdrawn from the case.

My second thought is that Dad may obtain a copy of everything when the court opens, but that the file may also be in the judge's office so finding it may be difficult.  

If his attorney doesn't show up, Dad should open with a motion to delay because his attorney didn't show up due to the short notice or actually lack of notice.

My next thought is that Dad should do a verbal motion to dismiss based on lack of service particularly since he didn't know about anything until he knocked on Mom's door.

If any of that works, then Dad should ask the judge to grant him time with his child IMMEDIATELY for an equal amount of time that he was supposed to have which didn't start like it was supposed to.

If the hearing goes on, then I bet it's already appealable based on the fact that he wasn't properly served.

[Leafypoint]

My husband and I just went through a similar situation on the 17th of this month, although he didn't have to drive 1400 miles to find out about it. He only had 45 minutes to get to the hearing though.
I'm not sure about the state that you are in, but in Washington state, an emergency order only lasts 14 days, and there is nothing in this state that you can really do to get it dismissed. The moving party doesn't have to "serve" the non-moving party anything, as long as there was a reasonable attempt made by the moving party to alert the non-moving party of the hearing. Then there is a hearing to determine whether there is sufficient cause to make the order for a longer period of time after the 14 day period is up. Summed up: pretty much anyone can get an emergency order against anyone else, especially if it involves the "safety" of a child." That's here, anyway...darn liberal state.

So, what I would suggest, IF the above is basically the way your state works, is that you not worry about the ex-wife serving your husband anything at this point. That obviously isn't going to happen. Just have him go to the court and copy anything that was filed by her so that he'll be able to have an informed rebuttal against her accusations. Also, get as much documentation as possible from any source that will support your side. The judges might not read it, but if it's filed, you can always point it out to them if they have questions. Can't do that if you don't file it. Then pray that the judge is just and fair and looking out for the best interest of the child.

And just to let you know, when it came time for my husband's hearing, his ex-wife didn't show up to it. Seems the documentation that my husband had filed was just "too damning" for her to come to court.

[Forthelittleones]

Hello All,

I thought that I would update you.  Well the Emergency motion was thrown out due to the report of the social worker on the supervised visitation plus the reason for the emergency motion was the same letter BM used 2.5 years ago.

So, DH had both kiddos for Christmas which was nice.  He then had a pretrial today because BM refiled the motion to suspend all visitation, etc.  This is the outcome:

1. We all have to go for phsyc testing.  BM has to pay the court 50,000.00 as a deposit for the testing.  She is also required to pay DH and my airfare, hotel, car and food while we are getting tested.  NOW, the Judge did reserve the right to make us pay for some of it - IF we are what she says we are.

2.  THE GAL stated that she thinks we need a change of custody (this is only a visitation mod) so she asked the Judge to set this case for a change of custody hearing.  We have a 5 day trial in August for it.  

3. Due to BM's hubby trying to beat up DH, no more exchanges at BM's house - all are at the court's supervision house.  This is the same house that saw BM violate all the rules, stalk DH and do a victory dance since she was able to get his visitation taken away for that one weekend.

4. BOTH parties had to call the court's supervision house today to set up the exchange.  Guess who didn't call?  Well the administrator called DH since BM did not call to make sure that SD would be coming to the house on Sunday.

5. Oh, guess what?  BM's reason for not using the court's supervision house - it was too far for her to drive and she refused to rearrange her life because DH wanted to use the house.  The Judge told her it was originally her idea and she was stuck with it.

So, in the next two weeks, each of us has to call the evaluator to set up an appt and there is another pretrial in APril to make sure that BM paid the $$$ for the case.  Keep the good thoughts flowing!  

THanks for everyone's help here!!